Film Festival Spotlights Global Human Rights

January 29, 2010 by Pulitzer Center

Carmen Russell, for the Pulitzer Center
Perhaps more than anything else in our visual world, a good film has the power to engage and provoke. When it’s a documentary exploring human rights issues, it tends to hit even harder as we learn what is happening in the world and who it is happening to.
 
We might academically know something is going on – perhaps we can even recite some statistics or recall a news report – but to see the faces and hear the voices of those affected by war, global warming, or genocide provokes an entirely different response. A very human response.
 
So, when the Georgetown Law  Amnesty International chapter was looking for someone to chair its Human Rights Film Festival committee, I immediately volunteered. It took little time for us to create an event of disparate films spanning the globe and the issues, from victims of trafficking and war to tireless crusades for peace and equality.
 
We also decided to do a “night of shorts,” to show how “mini-documentaries” can move and inspire. For this we partnered with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, an organization dedicated to bringing to light issues that have been kept in the dark – the very goal of our festival.
 
On February 1, we will feature a selection of works sponsored by the Pulitzer Center that explore under-reported issues from around the globe, including Haiti, Afghanistan, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Jamaica. Following screenings of these short documentaries, reporters – including myself – will discuss our work covering the plights of war victims, environmental refugees, and child slavery. For more information, visit Human Rights Film Festival at Georgetown Law Center.
 
Thanks to everyone who helped put this together and hope to see you there.
 
Carmen Russell is a journalist and former Pulitzer Center grantee.